Police ID Eritrean Man Found Dead in Running Car

Police ID Man Found Dead in Running Car

www.dispatch.com | 1/10/2018

A Columbus man who was found shot to death in a running car in South Linden over the weekend has been identified.

Abel Beyene, 30, was discovered by a resident who called Columbus police at 7:21 a.m. Saturday after he came home to find the car running with its lights on in his backyard in the 1200 block of 22nd Avenue.

The resident tried flashing lights at the car.

“I mean they ain’t moving,” the man told a dispatcher.

When officers arrived and approached the vehicle, they found Beyene in the driver’s seat with gunshot wounds. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 7:34 a.m.

It’s unclear how Beyene, whose last known address was in the North Side, ended up there or what led to the shooting.

Records show that Beyene had attended Ohio State University. He was contracted to work as an engineering technician at American Electric Power, a spokesperson there confirmed.

He was a native of Eritrea, a northeast African country on the Red Sea coast, according to his Facebook page.

Beyene’s death marks the sixth homicide in Columbus in 2018.

Anyone with information about his death is asked to call Columbus police at 614-645-4730. Callers also can remain anonymous by calling Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-645-TIPS (8477).